Monday, November 27, 2017
Saturday, November 18, 2017
12 Ways to Burn Fat Without Setting Foot In the Gym
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30 Easy Tips to Get Slimmer in 30 Days
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Thursday, November 16, 2017
Why You Seriously Don't Need to Worry About All the Calories on Thanksgiving
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During the week leading up to Thanksgiving, it's easy to get wrapped up in healthy side dish recipes, tips for avoiding holiday weight gain, and pre-turkey workouts that make room for an extra slice of pie. But for some people, all that strategizing sucks the joy right out of a day that's supposed to be about celebrating gratitude with loved ones over lots of delicious food.
"I tell people all the time, if you're looking forward to Thanksgiving, or any special occasion dining experience, go all out. Eat what you want. Then get back up on the horse again," says Liz Weinandy, RD, a nutritionist with the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. "But for a lot of people, this is easier said than done because they worry one meal makes or breaks everything."
How much does one meal really matter?
One single indulgent meal—even one whole day of high-calorie eating—is "absolutely not going to destroy anyone's metabolism, cause them to gain some tremendous amount of weight, or ruin longer-term goals," says Weinandy. To gain a notable amount of weight, you'd need to continuously consume more calories than your body can burn over the course of several days.
"Let's take a person who consumes 2,000 calories daily and maintains her weight," Weinandy says. "Say she eats 5,000 calories on Thanksgiving. Her body is going to have to store 3,000 extra calories because it can't burn them." But she won't even gain a whole pound. (One pound of fat is equivalent to 3,500 calories.) The amount of weight she'll put on is simply not worth agonizing over, especially at the expense of enjoying the holiday, says Weinandy. Plus, she'll burn all those calories off in the days to come, by returning to her regular eating habits and workout routine.
Craig Primack, MD, an obesity medicine specialist at the Scottsdale Weight Loss Center in Arizona, agrees that one big meal isn't enough to cause a noticeable physical difference or weight fluctuation. Might you feel the effects of a fatty, sugary holiday dinner in other ways? Sure. "You'll probably feel bloated, slightly dehydrated if you're consuming alcoholic beverages, and potentially uncomfortably full," says Dr. Primack. "But people know this going in."
What really matters, says Dr. Primack, is how Thanksgiving influences your behavior in the following days. "It's worth keeping in mind that you're going into a four-day weekend full of leftovers," he says. "And four days of eating off track can definitely have consequences, like weight gain or un-programming all of your great healthy habits. It's about the bigger picture, not the one meal."
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How to enjoy Thanksgiving to the fullest—and then hit the reset button
"Swapping grandma's famous creamy, buttery mashed potatoes for cauliflower mash sounds like a fantastic idea!" says no one. So instead of making culinary sacrifices this year, try this less restrictive, more balanced approach:
Step one: Make a conscious decision to hit pause on your health-focused ways to actually enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, and then press play again once the night is over. "It might sound totally silly, but you can even say this to yourself out loud, or say it in your head leading up to the holiday," Weinandy says.
In the hours before the main event, eat normally, starting with a high-protein breakfast when you wake up. "I don't like it when people have the mindset of, 'oh, I should hold out for the big dinner later and not eat all day,'" Weinandy says. "In doing that, you're already playing mind games with yourself and putting an unhealthy focus on food and calories."
Throughout your gathering, eat mindfully and savor each bite. Give yourself permission to soak up the moment, the people, the food, the flavors. "If you don't eat mindfully and feel the pleasure of it, you're missing the point," Weinandy says. "And when you eat mindfully, you often times don't even eat nearly as much as you'd expect yourself to."
Later on, use your food coma to your advantage. "My number one piece of advice for getting back on track the next day would be to get a good night's sleep," says Dr. Primack. "A bad night of sleep can increase appetite, make it tougher for you to register when you feel full, and slow your metabolism. And you feel lethargic and less motivated to get up and do some physical activity." So pass out early on Thanksgiving night, to make it easier for you to get back on your healthy A-game on Friday.
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Weinandy also recommends drinking a large glass of water or two when you wake up the next morning to aid digestion, rehydrate your body, and kickstart your metabolism. "And do not skip breakfast the morning after either," she says. "You should never feel like you have to make up for those extra calories by eliminating them at another time."
You may also want to consider preventing a week-long food binge by getting rid of leftovers. "I tell my patients to buy disposable food containers so you can send leftovers home with guests," Dr. Primack says. (Try these leakproof, plastic containers from DuraHome.)
And schedule some of your favorite workouts for the week after Thanksgiving, so you have an exercise game plan in mind and on the calendar, he adds. You'll be back in the saddle in no time.
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Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Monday, November 13, 2017
Friday, November 10, 2017
This Diet Is All Over Reddit—But Here’s What It Gets Wrong
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Take a deep-dive into the weight-loss forums on Reddit and you're bound to come across the CICO diet.
One user who had been following CICO for two months and shed 20 pounds wrote, "For years I actually thought that [losing weight] required vigorous exercise, and eating nothing but tilapia, broccoli, and spinach. How wrong I was."
In a separate thread, another user shared, "CICO will work regardless of what you're eating. Junk food, healthy food, fancy food, cheap food. It doesn't matter. CICO is essentially the only thing that matters when it comes to weight loss."
But many experts have a different take on the eating strategy, and argue that CICO is just another name for a weight-loss myth that refuses to die.
So what is the CICO diet?
The acronym stands for "calories in, calories out"; and the underlying theory—which is by no means a new concept—is that to lose weight, you simply need to consume fewer calories than you expend each day on physical activity and vital functions (such as breathing and keeping warm). Proponents of CICO argue that it doesn't necessarily matter what you eat, as long as you create a daily calorie deficit.
"At the core of it, it's true that calories will rule things when it comes to weight loss," says Dawn Jackson Blatner, RDN, author of The Superfood Swap. "If you're eating just a ton, you're not aware of calories, you will not be successful. That is true in the most crude, raw possible way." But, she adds, calorie awareness is only a tiny piece of a much bigger picture.
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What CICO gets wrong
The problem with the CICO mentality is that it reduces weight loss to a calorie equation, when not all calories are created equal.
"We now know that the quality of the calories you consume—as well as the macronutrient balance and timing—all impact metabolism, satiety, and how your body utilizes calories," explains Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD, Health's contributing nutrition editor. For example, 300 calories from a blueberry muffin made with refined flour and sugar does not affect your body the same way that 300 calories from cooked oats topped with almonds and blueberries do. "[CICO] is an outdated way of thinking," Sass says.
You also have to consider how food choices affect your body beyond weight loss. "Eating all junk, but keeping it low-calorie, will still wreak havoc on things like your skin, your mood, your gastrointestinal functions," Blatner says.
Mira Ilic, a clinical dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic, adds that certain macronutrients are important for things like tissue repair, and muscle recovery and growth. "If you're doing strength training and other physical activity as part of your healthy routine—which also boosts your metabolism and helps with weight loss—you're doing yourself a disservice by not thinking about the food you're putting on your plate," she says.
So can you lose weight just by keeping CICO in mind? "Sure, it's possible," Ilic says. "But would I recommend this to my patients? Definitely not."
Sass adds that she has seen clients lose weight after increasing their total calorie intake—or break through a weight-loss plateau by altering the quality, balance, or timing of their calories, without reducing the total amount. To sum up: "It's not as simple as a math equation," she says.
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A better way to watch your calories
For the average woman who wants to lose weight, Blatner suggests aiming to consume roughly 1,500 calories a day: "That number might be a little bit up or down, depending on whether you're taller or shorter, or how much you exercise," she explains, "but 1,500 calories is a great starting point."
However, instead of tallying up the calories from every single food you eat, Blatner recommends practicing "calorie consciousness." Look at your plate and ask yourself, Do I have a smart carb, protein, healthy fat, and vegetables? Then ask yourself, Do the portions of each look reasonable, with vegetables taking up the majority of the plate?
"If you look at your plate and you have what you can guesstimate is a half-cup of a grain, that's going to be roughly 150 calories; if you see a reasonably sized piece of protein, it's likely about 3 ounces, or about 150 calories," Blatner says. "And if you see a lot of vegetables, topped with just a little bit of fat, like a drizzle of olive oil, you're probably adding up to about a 400 to 450 calorie meal."
Developing calorie consciousness will help you get a good balance of nutrients to nourish your body, and stay on track to lose weight that actually stays off.
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